Updates - attack at NYC, Washington

[Master Yoghurt]

For the latest newsreports, use this thread.


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities in Massachusetts have identified five Arab men as suspects in Tuesday's attack on New York City and have seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at Logan International Airport, a source told the Boston Herald newspaper.

Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, the unidentified source told the Herald. One of the men was a trained pilot, the paper reported on its Web site on Wednesday. The paper said investigators suspect the two brothers were aboard hijacked United Airlines flight 175, which pilot union officials said was one of the aircraft that crashed into the World Trade Center.

Flight UA 175 left from Boston en route to Los Angeles with 56 passengers on board. American Airlines flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the other World Trade Center tower. Another aircraft hit the Pentagon and a fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania.

At least two other suspects flew to Logan on Tuesday from Portland, Maine, where authorities believe they had traveled after crossing over from Canada recently, the Herald reported. Authorities were informed about the rental car by a civilian who got into a fight with several Arab men as they were parking their car, the paper reported.

[Master Yoghurt]

More about the identity of the terrorists:

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush committed the United States to a "monumental struggle of good versus evil" on Wednesday as emergency workers dug desperately for survivors from the worst attack on the country since Pearl Harbor and began the search for bodies.

As the nation tried to move back to a semblance of normal life, Americans also braced themselves for a death toll expected to climb well into the thousands from the attacks.

Knife-wielding hijackers commandeered four planes on Tuesday and flew two into New York's World Trade Center, toppling the two highest structures in the city; a third seriously damaged the Pentagon. The fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

"The numbers that we're working on are in the thousands. Obviously we hope that's not the case," said New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

"The best estimate we can make, relying on the Port Authority and just everybody else that has experience with this, is there will be a few thousand people left in each building," he said, referring to the two massive twin towers of the World Trade Center where 40,000 worked.

Fire Chief Edward Plaugher, in charge of fighting the fire at the Pentagon, said early on Wednesday the death toll at the U.S. military headquarters could range from 100 to 800 people. He said the fire was still not fully under control and it would be days before a precise figure was known but no more survivors were expected to be found.

DEFINING MOMENT FOR BUSH
Bush, facing the defining moment of his eight-month-old presidency, called the attacks "an act of war" which he vowed to win.

"This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil but good will prevail," the president said after meeting his top security aides in the White House Cabinet room.

"This battle will take time and resolve, but make no mistake about it we will win," he said.

Americans reacted with controlled fury and a burst of patriotism as the full dimensions of the devastation and the human toll began to emerge. The country was still far from functioning normally with airports and financial markets shut down and many schools closed.

The first clues began to emerge about the identities of the perpetrators, pointing toward a possible Middle Eastern and Islamic connection.

Two Boston newspapers reported that authorities in Massachusetts had identified five Arab men as suspects and had seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at the city's Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked planes originated.

Investigators found a copy of the Koran, a videotape on how to fly commercial jets and a fuel consumption calculator in a pair of bags meant for American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center, the Boston Globe said.

The Boston Herald said the suspects entered the United States from Canada. Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, and one was a trained pilot.

EVIDENCE POINTS TO ISLAMIC GROUP

The discovery, if verified, would be the latest piece of evidence pointing investigators toward Islamic extremists. Senior U.S. officials have said initial evidence points to the organization of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born dissident now living in Afghanistan who is blamed for bombing two U.S. embassies in East Africa and other anti-American attacks.

U.S. agents served warrants on homes and searched businesses in south Florida, and issued alerts for two cars in connection with the attacks, local media reported.

As a cloud of dust still hung over New York City, rescue workers pulled a handful of people out of the wreckage of the World Trade Center on Wednesday morning and reported signs of life in the rubble, including at least one person sending out calls on a cellphone.

The world's financial center resembled a desolate war zone, the streets of lower Manhattan coated in gray ash and a thick trail of brown smoke pouring into the sky from where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood.

Arizona Sen. John McCain described the national mood as one of "controlled fury." Some New Yorkers flew American flags on their cars as they drove to work. Radio stations in Washington urged people to fly flags outside their windows.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrats who was his party's vice presidential nominee last year, said: "An act of war was committed against us. It's more than a crime. It's certainly at least a war crime. And I think Congress has to effectively declare war against terrorism."

The horror of Tuesday's events was still sinking in. Newspapers and television stations showed horrific images of desperate people jumping off the World Trade Center and plunging 70 or 80 stories to their death.

Giuliani said at least 202 firefighters were still missing and 259 uniformed service members had not been accounted for. They had apparently rushed into the first of the towers to be hit and were caught inside when it collapsed.

The mayor said rescue workers were in voice contact with at least one more person trapped in the rubble. "They are trying to rescue him and get him out," he said.

U.S. airlines planned to resume scheduled flights Wednesday afternoon after an unprecedented halt but bringing the commercial airline system back up to full speed was not expected any time soon.
Financial markets were scheduled to reopen on Thursday.

POWELL: AN ACT OF WAR
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.S. response would far surpass a single reprisal raid.
"Let's not think that one single counterattack will rid the world of terrorism of the kind we saw yesterday," Powell said on the NBC "Today" program.
"This is going to take a multifaceted attack on many dimensions -- diplomatic, military, intelligence, law enforcement. All sort of things have to be done to bring this scourge under control."

But he said the United States was not about to launch any military operation and did not yet know who was behind the attacks.
A Pakistani newspaper said bin Laden had denied blame. "The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have nothing to do with it," it quoted him as saying.

Western aid workers in Kabul began pulling out of the Afghan capital amid fears for their safety if the United States retaliated. The United Nations said it had begun withdrawing its 80 expatriate staff but the pullout was temporary.

Bush, in a televised address Tuesday night, said the United States would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." It was a clear signal that the Taliban could be targeted if Washington believed bin Laden to be responsible.

The world's leading investment banks and brokerages said they were still trying to account for their New York-based employees. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. was the financial complex's largest tenant. Brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald had offices on four of the top 10 floors of 1 World Trade Center.
Many firms said they could not confirm whether their staff at the trade center had been safely evacuated before the towers collapsed.

Stock markets stabilized and bonds fell in Europe after a global rout as investors fumbled for direction in the wake of the attacks, which many feared would prompt a global recession.

[Khasha DarNei]

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ts/?u

This link is for current updated reports and newstories...




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday said the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (news - web sites) were ''acts of war'' and vowed the United States would win.

``The deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against our country were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war,'' Bush said after meeting his top security aides in the White House Cabinet room.

``This battle will take time and resolve, but make no mistake about it we will win,'' he said.

Bush said he was sending an emergency funding request to Congress to help cope with Tuesday's attacks, in which hijacked airplanes destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York and set the Pentagon ablaze. Officials said thousands are feared dead in the attacks

[Khasha DarNei]

Wednesday September 12 1:38 PM ET
FBI Storms Hotel in Boston

BOSTON (AP) - A heavily armed FBI (news - web sites) team searching for suspects in the terrorism attacks in New York and Washington stormed a Boston hotel Wednesday, and a witness said someone was seen being put in a van.

A couple of dozen officers, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying shields, were seen bringing fiber-optic equipment into the Westin Hotel in the Back Bay section.

WHDH-TV reported the officers were using the equipment to check under hotel room doors on hotel's 16th floor, quoting a person who was inside the hotel.

``SWAT teams were all around holding machine guns,'' said witness R.J. Ryan of Boston, who joined hundreds of other onlookers outside the hotel.

``They put somebody in the van,'' Ryan said. ``Then they started moving everybody.''

Three ambulances and a police car were stationed outside the hotel as a crowd of onlookers gathered there. Police officers returned repeatedly to a police truck outside to retrieve the fiber-optic equipment, which can be slipped under doors to see inside rooms, WHDH-TV reported.

Meanwhile, other officers converged on the Park Inn at Chestnut Hill in Newton, a Boston suburb. Newton police officer Russ Adam said the FBI was conducting an investigation at the hotel. A clerk at the hotel confirmed the agents were there but said he could not say anything more.

Law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said a hotel room in the Boston area believed to have been used by one of the hijackers was searched but no arrests were made. The officials said the room was vacant but included information linking it a name on the manifest of one of the hijacked flights. They declined to identify the man.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press Writer John Solomon in Washington contributed to this report.

BOSTON (Reuters) - Investigators in Boston found a copy of the Koran, a videotape on how to fly commercial jets and a fuel consumption calculator in a pair of bags meant for American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the World Trade Center on Tuesday, the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday.

The paper said the suitcases belonged to a man with an Arabic name who investigators believe was one of those who hijacked the plane and crashed it into the New York landmark.

The man boarded Flight 11 after flying into Boston's Logan International airport from Portland, Maine, but his bags missed the connection, the Globe reported.

The discovery, if verified, would be the latest bit of evidence pointing investigators toward Islamic extremists as the perpetrators of Tuesday's deadly attacks in New York and Washington, the worst in memory on U.S. soil.

Senior U.S. officials have said initial evidence points to the organization of Osama Bin Laden, the Islamic militant who has been blamed for previous attacks on U.S. facilities in the Middle East and Africa, as the author of the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Boston Herald reported on its Web Site, citing an unidentified source, that Massachusetts authorities have identified five Arab men as suspects in the attacks and have seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at Logan.

Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, the unidentified source told the Herald. One of the men was a trained pilot, the paper reported on its Web site on Wednesday.

The paper said investigators suspect the brothers were aboard hijacked United Airlines flight 175, one of two aircraft that crashed into New York's World Trade Center.

Flight UA 175 left from Boston en route to Los Angeles with 56 passengers on board. American Airlines flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the other World Trade Center tower. Another aircraft hit the Pentagon (news - web sites) and a fourth aircraft crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

At least two other suspects flew to Logan on Tuesday from Portland, Maine, where authorities believe they had traveled after recently crossing over from Canada, the Herald reported.

Authorities were informed about the rental car by a civilian who got into a fight with several Arab men as they were parking their car, the paper reported.

Bomb Scare just reported on ABC News in New York City...Authorities are investigating a rolling suitcase, more to be reported as it becomes available

[Master Yoghurt]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of the hijackers who commandeered planes used in terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were trained as pilots in the United States, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Wednesday.

"A number of the suspected hijackers were trained as pilots in United States," Ashcroft told reporters.

"Four planes were hijacked by between three to six individuals per plane, using knives and box-cutters and in some cases making threats," Ashcroft said.

He said the attackers also targeted the White House and Air Force One. These targets were not hit but the World Trade Center towers in New York City were toppled and the Pentagon was gashed and set aflame. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

At the same news conference, FBI Director Robert Mueller denied reports that arrests had been made in the case, but said a few people were being detained on questions about their immigration status.

[Master Yoghurt]

Hijackers have been identified. Full story here:

www.abcnews.go.com/sectio..._MAIN.html (http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/WTC_MAIN.html)


ABCNEWS has learned that officials have identified all the hijackers, and estimated there were three to five for each of the four passenger planes involved. At least two of the hijackers were on the Immigration and Naturalization Service "watch list," and it's still unclear whether the individuals entered the United States illegally or whether they entered before their names were placed on the list.

Most if not all of the hijackers were Egyptian or Saudi nationals, sources said.

At least one person has been detained in connection to the assaults, ABCNEWS has learned. In Boston this afternoon, heavily armed FBI teams searched a room in the Westin Hotel at Copley Plaza for information related to the attacks.

The massive probe is also reaching into cyberspace. Two of the nation's major Internet service providers, America Online and Earthlink, have been served with "surveillance orders" by the FBI, which is apparently looking for Internet and e-mail traffic connected to the attacks, ABCNEWS has learned.


Clues in Boston, Maine, Florida

While the frenzied rescue efforts continue, the federal government is conducting a massive investigation into the worst terrorist attack ever on the United States. Bush said the attacks "were more than acts of terror, they were acts of war," and said the bulk of the nation's resources would be tapped to exact justice.
Already, investigators have found clues into the hijackings in Boston, Maine and Florida that helped identify the hijackers, and point to possible accomplices.

In Boston, where the two planes that hit the World Trade Center originated, the FBI has identified five Arab men as suspects. At least two of whom are believed to have flown into Boston from Portland, Maine, early Tuesday and were booked on the flights to Los Angeles, ABCNEWS' Ron Claiborne reported. The men may have entered the United States from Canada, and are believed to have "cased" Logan International Airport, making several trips back and forth between Portland and Boston.

The Boston Globe reported that a copy of the Koran, instructions on how to fly a commercial airplane and a fuel consumption calculator were found in a pair of bags meant for one of the hijacked flights that left from Logan.

At about 9 p.m. Tuesday, FBI agents and Massachusetts State Police towed a rented, late-model, white Mitsubishi Mirage with a Virginia license plate to an FBI garage. Arabic-language flight training manuals reportedly were found inside the car.

Investigators were led to the car by another airline passenger who got into a dispute with two men in the car over a parking space. When he heard about the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, he called authorities in Boston and told them about the incident Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile in Florida, authorities traced a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix registered to a trained pilot and Egyptian national, Mohamed Atta, 33, to a Venice, Fla., address. Sources identify Atta as one of the hijackers.

Agents who reported to the Venice address learned that Atta did not live there, but had stayed at the home last year while getting flight instruction. Agents also went to a Coral Springs, Fla., address listed on Atta's driver's license, sources said.

ABCNEWS sources identify another hijacker as Satan Suqami, a Saudi national on American Airlines Flight 11, whose passport was recovered in the rubble.

Rudy Dekkers, CEO of Huffman Aviation in Venice, Fla., told ABCNEWS today that two men, one from Afghanistan and one from another country, had trained at his flight school from July 2000 to November, taking instruction on small planes. They got licenses and left for a southeastern Florida facility where they would be able to train on jets, he said.

The FBI asked Dekkers to give them documents about the two individuals and their training. He said he gave investigators all the documentation plus information on other students. "We fly hundreds of students from all over the world," he said. In Maine, authorities impounded a blue Nissan Altima found at the Portland International Jetport, said Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, but he declined to comment on what led FBI and state police to focus on the car.

[Khasha DarNei]

Wednesday September 12 3:48 PM ET
NATO Allies Back United States
By PAUL GEITNER, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - NATO (news - web sites) declared Wednesday that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington can be considered an attack on the whole alliance - provided it turns out they were directed from abroad.

The decision grants the United States backing from its 18 NATO partners for military action if Tuesday's attacks were committed by foreigners, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said.

It was the first time this solidarity principle has been invoked in the history of the alliance founded in 1949.

``The parties will take such action as it deems necessary, including armed force,'' Robertson told a news conference. ``An attack on one is an attack on all.''

This principle dates to the alliance's founding, but has never been invoked. Originally intended to be applied in case of a Cold War attack, Robertson said the principle ``is no less valid'' today.

The decision obliges America's allies to provide support for any military operation, from opening up air space and providing intelligence and logistical support to contributing troops and equipment.

In a statement, the NATO allies said ``in the event of attacks ... each ally will assist (the United States) by taking such action as it deems necessary. Accordingly, the United States' NATO allies stand ready to provide the assistance that may be required as a consequence of these acts of barbarism.''

The declaration would allow the United States to invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter, which declares an ``armed attack'' on any member to be an attack on all.

Before the decision, a senior U.S. official in Washington told The Associated Press that adoption of a declaration would be a strong show of support. But the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it would not necessarily mean the allies would provide military units to counter terrorism.

NATO officials said there was no discussion of military intervention.

``At the moment this is an act of solidarity,'' Robertson said. ``It's a reaffirmation of a solemn treaty commitment which these countries have entered into''

A special European Union (news - web sites) foreign ministers meeting here ended separately with a strong show of support for the United States in the wake of the attacks. In a statement, the ministers said they would ``spare no efforts to help identify, bring to justice and punish those responsible.''

The foreign ministers also declared a day of mourning in all 15 EU nations for Friday and asked ``all Europeans to observe three minutes of silence'' on Friday at 6 a.m. EDT.

``We were all victims of this attack,'' Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, who chaired the EU meeting, told reporters.

In an exceptional move, NATO secretary-general Robertson attended the EU meeting.

``We have to make clear to the world that (the EU and NATO) stand together,'' he said. ``We are two organizations that speak with one voice, one strong voice.''

Search and rescue teams were mobilized around Europe, and EU officials said they were ready to help U.S. authorities with recovery efforts if needed.

[Khasha DarNei]

KABUL (Reuters) - Fears mounted in Afghanistan (news - web sites) Wednesday that Washington may unleash retaliation on the country for hosting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), who is suspected of masterminding the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor.

Security was noticeably tightened in war-ravaged Kabul, although officials of the ruling Taliban movement told a news conference within hours of the attacks that Washington had no reason to retaliate against Afghanistan.

Foreign aid workers, fearing they would become victims of local revenge if the United States does attack Afghan targets linked to bin Laden, began to leave Wednesday.

Experts forecast an early strike on Afghanistan if evidence hardens the exiled Saudi guerrilla chief was behind the attacks.

Senior U.S. officials said initial evidence pointed to bin Laden's organization, blamed for the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa and other anti-American attacks.

President Bush (news - web sites) has said the United States would go after not only those behind the attacks but those nations which harbored and supported them.

ACTS OF WAR

Addressing the nation Wednesday, Bush called the attacks that killed possibly thousands of people ``acts of war.''

Non-governmental aid organizations, which had already felt Taliban pressure in recent months, advised staff to keep a low profile and many were joining the exodus from Afghanistan.

``I think the fear is there, particularly after the evacuation of the aid workers,'' said Reuters journalist Tahir Ikram in Kabul. ``But I don't see any sign of panic yet.''

Taliban authorities in Kabul Wednesday beefed up security at government offices, thoroughly checking vehicles entering government compounds, witnesses said.

Kabul's airport was closed after an overnight rocket attack by anti-Taliban forces based north of the Afghan capital that initially spawned fears a U.S. retaliation had already begun.

The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, repeated the fundamentalist movement's position it could consider extraditing bin Laden if provided proof of his involvement.

``It is premature,'' Zaeef said in Islamabad when asked if his radical Islamic movement would consider expelling bin Laden, believed to be holed up in mountainous Afghanistan.

``If any evidence is presented to us, we will study it.''

BIN LADEN DENIAL

Concerned over a repeat of U.S. reprisals on Afghanistan that followed the 1998 embassy attacks in Africa, the ruling Taliban issued hasty denials that the man they describe as their guest was capable of mounting such a vast coordinated conspiracy.

The Urdu-language Khabrain daily in Pakistan said bin Laden had told the newspaper through ``sources close to the Taliban,'' he was not involved in Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon (news - web sites) in Washington.

``The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have nothing to do with it,'' he was quoted as saying in the newspaper, which has a reputation for sensationalism. The report could not be independently confirmed.

But experts said few besides bin Laden -- who honed his guerrilla skills in the 1980s commanding Arab fighters funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) -- have the cash or expertise to mount such attacks.

``A lot of things point to him,'' said Sen. Richard Shelby, vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.

The tall, bearded 44-year-old, who sees himself in a holy war, commands Islamic militants willing to die attacking the United States, which they see as the ultimate enemy.

FIVE ARAB MEN

Two Boston newspapers reported that authorities in Massachusetts had identified five Arab men as suspects and had seized a rental car containing Arabic-language flight training manuals at the city's Logan International Airport, where two of the hijacked planes originated.

Investigators found a copy of the Koran, a videotape on how to fly commercial jets and a fuel consumption calculator in a pair of bags meant for one of the flights that crashed into the World Trade Center, the Boston Globe said.

The Boston Herald said the suspects entered the United States from Canada. Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates, and one was a trained pilot, it said.

The Taliban's opponents in the Northern Alliance, which now controls only the northeast corner of Afghanistan, have accused bin Laden of taking an increasingly prominent role in the Taliban fight for control of all the country.

On Wednesday, the alliance's ambassador in China accused the Taliban, bin Laden and Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency of being behind the attack on the United States.

``We believe that this is a triangle between Osama bin Laden, ISI, which is the intelligence section of the Pakistani army, and the Taliban,'' Abdul Basir Hotak told Reuters.

Pakistan, which denies it is providing military support to the Taliban, issued a stiff condemnation of the attack and has not commented on suggestions of links to bin Laden or the Taliban.

[Master Yoghurt]

50 suspects identified

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has identified a team of 50 people who helped plan or carry out Tuesday's air attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.

It said 40 "infiltrators" had been accounted for, including those who died in the suicide attacks, and 10 remained at large.

The newspaper quoted "a source familiar with the investigation" as saying agents who searched cars and apartments found suicide notes in New York that some of the hijackers wrote for their parents.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

U.S. officials say Saudi Arabian-born exile Osama bin Laden or his group al Qaeda are key suspects in the sophisticated plot.

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said some of the hijackers had trained as pilots in the United States.

"Four planes were hijacked by between three to six individuals per plane, using knives and box-cutters and in some cases making bomb threats," Ashcroft said.

Ashcroft said investigators were obtaining passenger manifests, rental car receipts, telephone logs, and videotape from parking garages and pay phones for review and appropriate follow-up interviews.

The Los Angeles Times said investigators had recovered credit card receipts showing that some of the hijackers paid for flight training in the United States.

It cited another source, a federal agent involved in the probe, as saying authorities believed 27 suspected "terrorists" in all received various kinds of pilot training.

Time magazine reported that two of the suspected hijackers of the American Airlines jetliner that slammed into the Pentagon had been on an FBI border watch list, but managed to enter the country due to some kind of a foul-up. Each of the four teams of hijackers included a certified pilot, some of whom had flown for Saudi Airlines, Time magazine added.

Security experts have said the attackers must have operated in a network of cells. The Los Angeles Times quoted law enforcement and intelligence officials as saying the attackers carried Middle Eastern passports and belonged to four independent cells.

On Wednesday Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said authorities had determined that passports carried by five of the hijackers were from two countries in the Middle East which she declined to identify. The hijackers were not necessarily from the countries of the passports they were carrying.

"I think they are beginning to see a pattern of travel of the 15 or so people that were involved," she told reporters. "There are patterns that they would go to one country, then another country, and then enter the United States," she said.

[Khasha DarNei]

Smart move on their part, though a little late, in my own opinion..


Thursday September 13 9:55 AM ET
Pakistan Pledges to Back U.S. Terrorism Fight
Photos

Reuters Photo



By Jack Redden

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, under pressure for backing Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s Taliban movement, on Thursday pledged full cooperation against terrorism to President Bush (news - web sites).

``Pakistan has been extending cooperation to international efforts to combat terrorism in the past and will continue to do so. All countries must join hands in this common cause,'' said a formal statement.

``I wish to assure President Bush and the U.S. government of our fullest cooperation in the fight against terrorism,'' Musharraf said.

The new U.S. ambassador, Wendy J. Chamberlin, held talks with Musharraf later on Thursday, after presenting her credentials, and said she was assured of Pakistan's support.

``The president made a very strong statement that he was with us,'' Chamberlin said. ``Let me just say that he was positive, strong and he repeated several times during the meeting that he was with us.''

The spokesman for the foreign ministry said Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) had discussed Tuesday's attacks on the United States with Musharraf on Wednesday. He said Pakistan had pledged support for U.S. efforts against those responsible.

The Taliban are sheltering Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), who is a chief suspect in the attacks on New York and Washington.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are the only countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Pakistan is the only one to have an embassy in Kabul.

DENIES ARMING TALIBAN FIGHTERS

Pakistan has always denied persistent reports it is arming and advising fighters for the Taliban, who emerged from the religious schools of Pakistan in 1994 to sweep over most of Afghanistan despite a lack of military training.

But it has faced increasing international pressure over its public diplomatic support for the Taliban, who have refused to turn over bin Laden to face U.S. charges that he blew up two U.S. embassies in 1998.

In the wake of the latest attacks, Musharraf has gone to extremes to demonstrate his support for the United States. While never mentioning the Taliban or bin Laden, he has appeared on television twice to condemn the attack.

``We strongly condemn this barbaric and heinous act of terrorism, which will live in memory as a most heinous crime against humanity,'' Musharraf said in the latest statement.

``We regard terrorism as an evil that threatens our societies,'' he said. ``Concerted international effort is needed to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. The carnage in New York and Washington has raised this struggle to a new level.''

On Wednesday Pakistan called on Pakistanis in the United States to provide all aid possible to victims of the attacks, including giving blood.

Musharraf finds himself in an awkward position, with Islamic parties inside his country warning him not to help the United States against the hardline Islamic government in Afghanistan.

The military ruler himself said in July that it was in Pakistan's interests to recognize the Taliban because it controlled most of Afghanistan and was mainly a Pashtun organization, an ethnic group that also has millions of tribe members inside Pakistan.

[Master Yoghurt]

New York Mayor Says 4,763 Missing From WTC Attack
&nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp
September 13, 2001 10:11 AM EDT &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said on Thursday that 4,763 people are counted as missing after the attack on the World Trade Center by hijacked airliners.

Giuliani said the number includes people who were on the two airliners that slammed the twin towers, the number provided by companies searching for their employees, rescue workers and those reported unaccounted for by phone callers.

[Lady Mindy]

By LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Five rescue workers were pulled alive from the ruins of the World Trade Center on Thursday, two days after terrorists toppled the skyscrapers. The city said more than 4,700 people were still missing.

Authorities said three of the five Fire Department workers were able to walk away from the sport utility vehicle in which they had been trapped for more than 48 hours. They had rushed to the scene on Tuesday when the towers were stuck by hijacked airliners.

It was rare good news on a day when Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) had said 4,763 people had been reported missing in the devastation.

``It could turn out we recover fewer than that; it could be more,'' he said. ``We don't know the answer.''

He said the city had some 30,000 body bags available to hold the pieces taken from the rubble, and parts of 70 bodies had been recovered. There were just 94 confirmed dead; 30 or fewer had been identified.

``Let's just say there was a steady stream of body bags coming out all night,'' said Dr. Todd Wider, a surgeon who was working at a triage center. ``That and lots and lots of body parts.''

On Wednesday, five people were pulled alive from the Trade Center rubble - three of them police officers.

In a call to Giuliani and New York Gov. George Pataki, President Bush (news - web sites) said he would visit the nation's largest city on Friday. ``I weep and mourn with America,'' he said, describing Tuesday's attacks as ``the first war of the 21st century.''

The president will find a reeling metropolis. A vast section of the city has been sealed off, as emergency workers struggled to cope with the unprecedented destruction.

Work was slowed by hellish bursts of flame and the collapse of the last standing section of one of the towers taken out by suicide jets.

The effort was mirrored at the Pentagon (news - web sites), where 190 people were feared dead and 70 bodies had been recovered.

The 4,763 missing reported by Giuliani, added to the deaths in Washington and Pennsylvania when commandeered airliners crashed into the Pentagon and a grassy field southeast of Pittsburgh, would bring the total to more than 5,000.

That would be higher than the death toll from Pearl Harbor and the Titanic combined. A total of 2,390 Americans died at Pearl Harbor nearly 60 years ago, and the sinking of the Titanic claimed 1,500 lives.

A thick cloud of acrid, white smoke blew through the streets Wednesday after the four-story fragment of the south tower fell. Gusts of flame occasionally jumped up as debris was removed from the smoldering wreckage.

The vast search to uncover the terrorist plot stretched from Miami to Boston to Portland, Maine, and on to Canada and Germany. Up to 50 people were involved in the attack, the Justice Department (news - web sites) said, with at least four hijackers trained at U.S. flight schools. Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) remained a top suspect.

Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said authorities had ``thousands and thousands'' of leads. He said they had determined that 18 hijackers were on the planes: five on each of two planes and four each on the other two.

In Washington, Bush worked with Congress on legislation authorizing military retaliation, and officials disclosed that the White House, Air Force One and the president himself had been targeted Tuesday.

America's NATO (news - web sites) allies bolstered Bush's case for military action, declaring the terrorist attacks an assault on the alliance itself.

Ripples continued to spread. The National Football League called off the 15 games scheduled for this weekend, following in the path of major league baseball, which had already had postponed three days of games.

But gradually, some sectors returned to normal. The government gave the go-ahead for commercial and private flights to resume, but schedules were expected to be in disarray, and heavy security was the rule.

In New York, the landscape was a haze of gray dust, splayed girders, paper and boulders of broken concrete. Firefighters armed with cameras and listening devices on long poles searched for survivors. German shepherds and golden retrievers clambered over the debris, sniffing.

A morgue set up in a Brooks Brothers clothing store received remains a limb at a time.

Three financial companies with offices in the complex had nearly 1,400 workers unaccounted for. Marsh & McLennan, an insurance firm, said it had not been able to account for 600 of 1,700 employees; Keefe Bruyette & Woods, a securities firm, said 69 of 172 employees were missing. Cantor Fitzgerald, a bond firm, said 730 people of its 1,000-person staff were missing, according to The New York Times.

Giuliani was among those who escaped Tuesday's attack uninjured, bolting from a building barely a block from the site when the first of the towers collapsed.

More than 3,000 tons of rubble was taken by boat to a former Staten Island garbage dump, where the FBI (news - web sites) and other investigators searched for evidence, hoping to find the planes' black boxes with clues to what happened in the final terrifying minutes before the crashes.

Wall Street remained closed for a third day Thursday, with hopes the exchanges may reopen Friday. The shutdown on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) was already longer than the two-day closure at the end of World War II; the next-longest lasted a week, after the 1929 crash. Bond trading resumed Thursday.

Insurance industry experts say the attack could become the nation's most expensive manmade disaster ever, with payouts ranging from $5 billion to $25 billion.

The densely packed bottom tip of the island, an area roughly five square miles, remained off-limits to everyone but emergency workers. Volunteers emerged from the search-and-rescue mission with grisly tales as they cleared away the twisted steel and glass wreckage of the twin towers.

One body was carried out wrapped in an American flag. When workers hung another American flag from a piece of a transmission tower that apparently survived the collapse, ``everybody stopped and saluted,'' said Parish Kelley, a firefighter from Ashburnham, Mass.

Kelley spent the day working in a crater left by the towers' collapse. As he picked through the rubble, he watched as a man's body - a cell phone still clutched in his hand - was carried out.

``We're looking at a pile of rubble 30 to 40 feet high. Where do you start?'' said sheriff's Sgt. Mike Goldberg of Hampden County, Mass., accompanying a search-and-rescue dog.

The discovery of a foot and leg and a cockpit seat led to speculation that one of the pilots had been found, Goldberg said.

For those looking for missing family members, there were unanswered questions. A family grief center set up in a Manhattan armory drew 2,500 family members on Wednesday. Thousands more were expected as the search mission continued.

At St. Vincent's Hospital, where hundreds of victims were treated, a sobbing Annelise Peterson walked in a daze, clutching pictures of her boyfriend and brother. Peterson asked if anyone had seen either. No one could tell her yes.

Among the missing: at least 202 firefighters and possibly up to 350; 154 workers from the Port Authority; 57 NYPD and Port Authority police officers; 38 members of a Manhattan management company. Another 150 were unaccounted for at the Pentagon. The four hijacked planes carried 266 passengers and crew.

Also lost was John P. O'Neill, head of security for the World Trade Center and a former FBI expert on terrorism. O'Neill headed the investigations into the bombing of the USS Cole (news - web sites), along with the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Back at Bellevue, a firefighter almost had to have his leg amputated so he could be freed from the rubble, said Pataki, who visited the hospital to thank medical workers and speak with patients.

The governor asked him why he would risk his life. The unidentified firefighter told him: ``What do you expect? I'm a New Yorker.''


Thursday September 13 12:43 PM ET
NATO, U.N. Back United States
By CONSTANT BRAND, Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Building support in its battle against terrorism, the United States won key endorsements from NATO (news - web sites) and the United Nations (news - web sites) for punishing those responsible for the attacks against symbols of American financial and military power.

NATO's governing council declared Wednesday night that if the attacks against the United States were directed from abroad, then they would be considered an attack against all 19 NATO member nations.

The unprecedented NATO decision was taken after the U.N. Security Council in New York unanimously condemned the terrorist attacks ``as a threat to international peace and security'' and vowed to combat terrorist acts ``by all means.''

The NATO statement contained no explicit threat of military action. On Thursday, Germany's envoy to NATO, Gebhardt von Moltke, said ``actions within the framework of NATO are neither planned nor foreseen at this time.''

The decisions represented diplomatic victories for the United States as it tries to determine who was responsible for the biggest terrorist attacks in American history.

Suspicion has fallen on Saudi billionaire Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), who lives in Afghanistan (news - web sites).

In taking its decision, the 19 NATO ambassadors agreed to allow Washington to invoke Article 5 of NATO's charter - a first in the alliance's 52-year history.

Article 5, designed to respond to a Cold War offensive, declares an ``armed attack'' on any member to be an attack on all. That means the United States will be able to count on support from its 18 NATO partners for any potential military response.

``An attack on one is an attack on all,'' NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said, while emphasizing that no military action had yet been decided upon.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said invoking the solidarity principle would not necessarily mean using NATO forces against terrorists and their protectors.

Rather, Powell said, NATO allies could provide support such as overflight rights. NATO said that America's allies ``stand ready to provide the assistance that may be required as a consequence of these acts of barbarism.''

Following NATO's action, major European leaders underscored their support for the United States in face of the crisis.

``They were not only attacks on the people in the United States, our friends in America, but also against the entire civilized world, against our own freedom, against our own values, values which we share with the American people,'' German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in Berlin.

``We will not let these values be destroyed - in Europe, America or anywhere in the world,'' Schroeder added. ``I am convinced that together we will weather this criminal challenge.''

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said that governments that encourage terrorism must be made to act responsibly.

``It is obvious that it is their responsibility to fight terrorism in their own territory, not to encourage terrorist ideas,'' Jospin said in a television interview. ``If not, they risk paying the consequences, and that is logical.''

On Thursday, the NATO alliance and Russia agreed to increase cooperation to fight international terrorism. After meeting at Alliance headquarters, a joint statement was issued saying they ``are united in their resolve not to let those responsible for such an inhuman act to go unpunished.''

China on Thursday urged NATO to consult with other nations over a response and said it might take part if the United Nations were involved.

``The international community should take resolute actions against international terrorism, but I think that this action should be taken within the framework of international cooperation,'' Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya was quoted saying on the Web Site of the Communist Party's official People's Daily.

In a separate show of allied solidarity, the European Union (news - web sites) pledged Wednesday to help U.S. authorities track down and ``punish those responsible'' for Tuesday's attacks.

The EU foreign ministers, at a special meeting, asked ``all Europeans to observe three minutes of silence'' at noon Friday.

``There will be no safe haven for terrorists and their sponsors,'' the EU ministers said in a statement. ``The Union will work closely with the United States and all partners to combat international terrorism.''

Also Thursday, the head of the Rio Group, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, said its 19 Latin American member nations are ready to help the United States in the struggle against terrorism.

``Our intention is to show the United States that they are not alone,'' Lagos said during a visit to the European Union. ``This fight is something we all share.''

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A renewed sense of hope swept through exhausted rescue teams in the hellish ruins of New York's financial district on Thursday, after reports that five firefighters had been pulled alive from the wreckage.

Local television stations said the firefighters were pulled from a vehicle that had been entombed in rubble after the stunning collapse of the huge World Trade Center complex where more than 40,000 people worked on an ordinary day.

Only five other people had been saved earlier from the rubble of the two 110-story buildings, once the tallest in the city.

The official death toll stood at 94, and 70 body parts also had been recovered from the smoldering wreckage of the buildings felled two days earlier by a pair of hijacked planes, said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites). But the final figure was expected to rise sharply.

A list of 4,763 people reported missing was assembled before the most recent rescues. The list included people on the planes, people identified by family members and information from businesses located in the Trade Center, the mayor said.

More than 300 of those missing were firefighters and emergency personnel who rushed in after the first plane hit the north tower and a second plane rammed the south tower a few minutes later on Tuesday morning.

ATTEMPT AT 'NORMALCY'

They were trapped when the south tower tilted slightly and fell in a roar of smoke and flames almost two hours later, and the north tower toppled not long afterward.

The city left reeling by the assaults tried to return to some semblance of everyday life. Businesses reopened, commuters returned and the bond market resumed trading, although the stock market was closed for a third day.

But the mood was tense and jumpy. Frightened people fled several office buildings, stores and public areas as rumors of bomb scares spread across midtown Manhattan.

``It's just panic, more copycat panic,'' said Port Authority Police Capt. Chris Acerbo, who ordered a temporary evacuation of the headquarters of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the area's airports, bridges and tunnels, after receiving a bomb threat.

In downtown Manhattan, where the devastation spread over block after city block, rescuers worked feverishly in hopes that anyone could be alive under the mind-boggling piles of concrete, glass and steel.

``Every guy that is digging there is hoping to come out with somebody alive,'' said firefighter Kevin Gallagher. ``Sometimes we find a person. Sometimes we find a body part.''

Several hours had passed since officials said pleas for help had been made on cell phones by people inside the rubble.

In a grim sign, the city ordered as many as 11,000 body bags and hospitals braced for waves of injured survivors that never came.

Photos

Reuters Photo



SEARING IMAGES

In the nearly two hours between the attack of the first plane and the collapse of the second tower, thousands who fled but paused to look back were left with searing images of panicked people jumping or falling from the upper floors.

Hours later, a third, 47-story building in the complex also collapsed.

``I thought I'd seen a lot by being in Bosnia, but there was nothing like this,'' said Mark Anderson, a firefighter who spent more than two years as deputy chief in charge of Bosnia for the United Nations (news - web sites) Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

``This is really something unimaginable. I don't think anyone could foresee human beings doing this to other human beings,'' he said.

The catastrophe wiped out the city's best known symbols of wealth and financial might, tore a gash in the southern tip of Manhattan and left a gaping hole in the its famed skyline.

Nearby buildings were destroyed, and a glass skyway lay in jagged shards on a highway below.

Sidewalks and streets were strewn with mangled cars and demolished rescue equipment and blanketed with a thick layer of dust, ash, blood, debris, torn paper and a heartbreaking array of personal belongings.

Agonized families awaited word of missing loved ones, but there was wrenchingly little news. Officials set up a center for families at an armory on Lexington Avenue.

Among the missing and presumed dead were top officers with the city fire department, an executive of the Port Authority, financial traders, restaurant employees, janitorial workers and bicycle messengers.

The devastation to the financial district shut down the stock market on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday -- the longest stretch of suspended trading since the outbreak of World War One. The market may reopen Friday or Monday, officials said.

Businesses with offices in the tower struggled to account for employees. Trading company Cantor Fitzgerald, with offices in some of the highest floors, reportedly was missing 90 percent of its work force of about 1,000 people.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (news - web sites), or FEMA, said 450,000 tons of debris would have to be cleared from the towers and another 15,000 from the third building that collapsed.

Both hijacked planes that hit New York were flying to Los Angeles from Boston, loaded with fuel for the cross-country trips. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, had 92 people on board when it struck the north tower. United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 people, struck the south tower.

[SAURRON]

Five men who tried to board a plane Thursday in New York were being questioned, officials said. One of the men had a false pilot's identification. The five were identified as the same men who had tried to board a plane around the time of Tuesday's hijackings, but were turned away.

They tried again. Tonight they said actually there were two groups ten total with false I.D. trying to gain access to prohibited areas and or flights.

One more thing. Security stormed a plane that was cleared for take off after waiting for three hours today said a man in an interview on TV tonight. SWAT type officers rushed the plane taking away approx three people. Two women and one man.

There are more cells waiting to continue. :(

[Lady Mindy]

Friday September 14 10:06 AM ET
50,000 Support Personnel Coming
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) will activate up to 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to aid recovery and security efforts in the wake of terrorist attacks, The Associated Press has learned.

Bush acted on the recommendation of Donald H. Rumsfeld, who presented the proposal during a Cabinet meeting at the White House Friday.

Bush had planned to announce the move after the Cabinet meeting, but the photo opportunity was canceled at the last minute. Two government officials familiar with the president's plans said he still planned to go forward with the move.

They stressed that the call-up was not part of a military mobilization aimed at the terrorists who struck Washington and New York on Friday. Instead, Rumsfeld wants the troops, the largest number called up since the 1991 Persian Gulf War (news - web sites), to support air patrols over New York and Washington and remain alert elsewhere in the country.

The troops also would help with homeland defense, the officials said, such as recovery and security efforts in the affected areas.

Taliban Warn of Revenge if U.S. Attacks Afghanistan
Photos

Reuters Photo



KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s ruling Taliban warned on Friday of revenge ``by other means'' if the United States attacked their country in retaliation for the deadly terror attacks on Washington and New York.

The warning came as fundamentalist Taliban clerics in the capital used Friday prayers to urge the world's Muslims to unite against the U.S.

``Oh Muslims of the world, we should unite together if the United States attacks us,'' one cleric told the faithful at a Kabul mosque. The theme was repeated across the capital.

Washington says Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), who lives in Afghanistan as a ``guest'' of the Taliban, is a prime suspect in connection with Tuesday's deadly attacks. It has vowed to strike against those responsible as well as any country which harbours them.

Abdul Hai Mutamaen, the Taliban's chief spokesman, warned of revenge if the U.S. attacked. ``We will take revenge if America attacks through different means,'' he told reporters without elaborating.

Friday September 14 4:40 AM ET
Afghan Taliban Leader Insists Bin Laden Is Innocent
Photos

Reuters Photo

Slideshows

AP Photo
Terrorists Attack U.S.
Audio/Video
Anger Aimed at Arab-Americans (ABCNEWS.com)



By Raja Asghar

ISLMABAD (Reuters) - The leader of Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s ruling Taliban movement on Friday defended Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) against accusations he masterminded the devastating terror attacks on the United States.

Mullah Mohammad Omar said in a statement released in neighboring Pakistan that neither bin Laden nor Afghanistan had the capacity to train the suicide pilots who crashed hijacked aircraft into landmarks in New York and Washington, killing thousands of people.

``The event in America itself is indicative to the acquittal of Osama because Osama has no pilots...,'' he said in the statement, read at a news conference by Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan.

``Training of pilots is the work of a running government and only such (a) government has the capacity to do so,'' he said. ''...Osama has no pilots, and where did he train them? In Afghanistan, there is no such possibility for the training.''

The statement from the reclusive Taliban leader is the first he has made since Tuesday's devastating attack. He rarely gives interviews, has never to have been filmed or photographed and reputedly has met only two non-Muslims in his life.

The Taliban's ambassador, commenting on expectations of a U.S. strike against bin Laden and Afghanistan for giving him shelter, said Washington should not act in haste.

``The Americans should not hurry. They should be patient,'' he said, adding that there should be thorough investigation to find out who was responsible for the attacks.

``I don't expect Americans will take such a hasty action without evidence,'' Zaeef said.

He told a questioner that Pakistani authorities had talked to the Taliban about the situation emerging from the terror attack, but he said he had no details.

Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has assured President Bush (news - web sites) of Islamabad's ``unstinted cooperation'' to fight terrorism, and he was chairing a special meeting of army commanders on Friday to discuss the situation.

Pakistan is one of only three countries which recognizes the Taliban, which controls about 95 percent of the war-torn country and is accused by an anti-Taliban alliance of giving military support to the radical Islamic movement. Islamabad denies this.

Zaeef flatly rejected requests from foreign journalists attending the news conference for visas to visit Afghanistan, saying there was no accommodation available for them.

``There are no places ... all houses are full,'' he said. ''When the houses will be vacant, we will permit you.''

Zaeef said there was now a ``temporary restriction'' on issuing visas for Afghan visits, but that border with Pakistan had not been closed.